Ridlr & Zophop aim to make life easier for commuters using public transport

Startups like Ridlr and Zophop are aiming to make life easier for commuters and give struggling public transport a much needed shot in the armRajiv Singh | ET Bureau | October 04, 2017, 10:10 IST

Early last month, Mahesh Apte was saved from an ordeal. While the CA knew there would be traffic curbs during Ganesh visarjan on September 2, he didn’t know how bad it would be.

In the eastern suburbs, traffic police had planned to shut 20 roads, including the one in Kurla, where Apte lives. “Thanks to an update by Ridlr, I skipped the blocked routes,” he says.

Founded in 2012 by Brijraj Vaghani, the Mumbai-based public transport app Ridlr spans the entire lifecycle of a commuter: from real-time traffic inputs to enjoying a comfortable ride by booking tickets for bus, local train, metro or monorail. What started as a simple idea of providing live traffic information to commuters across Mumbai, has expanded across 24 cities.

Not only does it enable mobile ticketing in buses, commuters can also buy daily or monthly passes on Ridlr’s app. All they need to do is take a selfie, fill in basic details and pay for the pass.

“Passes in Mumbai can be renewed from only 90 locations,” he says, adding that a bus can be boarded from one of the 6,000 bus stops. Using a mobile pass, he lets on, not only saves time but also the harrowing effort it otherwise takes.

Backed by investors such as Matrix Partners and Qualcomm Ventures, Vaghani claims that over 1.5 lakh people have booked tickets via Ridlr, and 10% of the total pass holders have recharged the pass once on the app. It was not easy to begin with. The biggest problem was creating infrastructure.

There were neither sensors nor public camera feeds which could be used to measure traffic on road. There were no standard APIs and protocols for transit agencies to share data with users in digital form.

Adding to the woes was the absence of physical infrastructure for mobile ticketing, recalls Vaghani, who had stints with Qualcomm and Nextwave in the US before he returned home to start his own venture. What was equally appalling was a stark contrast with America where, “People access traffic information before hitting the road. Everything is meticulously organised,” he says.

In developed nations, the government deploys sensors and cameras for remote monitoring and surveillance, which is shared with app developers and companies to build applications for users. In India, it was badly missing.

Here CCTV camera feed is typically not shared with anyone for security reasons, he says. Vaghani overcame this by looking for alternate and unconventional sources of data to sample traffic information. Ridlr tied up with cabs and logistic companies who would share their GPS feeds, which in turn was converted into reliable traffic information.

The biggest challenge now for Vaghani is to expand to different cities and rope in big state transport corporations. Another aspect is a consistent high-quality experience. “We aim to own everyday travel and information on mobile,” he says. Well, with Google actively pushing traffic updates, Vaghani might have to perhaps take a different route.

Vinayak Bhavnani and Mohit Dubey could easily replace Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati. Not that the duo are bigger celebrities or have any experience with reality shows. But they have a knack for right questions.

Sample this: Do you know that in Mumbai, a commuter waits up to 30 minutes a day – equivalent to spending 6 days a year – at a bus stop, asks Bhavnani, co-founder of Zophop. Contrast this with people in cars: the total time they spend at traffic signals rarely adds up to six days in their lifetimes, he adds.

Dubey, another co-founder, serves up another stat: Do you know less than 4% of Indians have access to cars or cabs for their everyday commute, and only 10% have access to two-wheelers?

Right questions, reckon the duo, get you right answers. The biggest problem with a city commute is bus travel, and the most critical problem in the bus commute is ‘which bus will arrive, and when’. Launched in 2015, Zophop is trying to get the right answers for all kind of questions that commuters might have, ranging from live bus positions to accurate time of arrival at any stop along the route to a turnkey ticketing solution.

“Zophop ensures that commuters don’t have to wait unnecessarily at a bus stop, ever again,” says Bhavnani, adding that the startup piloted with BEST AC buses in Mumbai to offer real-time tracking. Today, the app is available in 15 cities to help commuters plan trips and see the fastest, cheapest options. “We track 5,000 buses live in Mumbai, Indore, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Nagpur on a daily basis,” he claims.

Zophop works on a simple model: partnerships with public and private corporations responsible for plying buses. The startup provides them technological support ranging from GPS devices, enterprise solutions to manage a fleet, and analytics to optimise routes. What they get in return is access to 1.5 million daily commuters.

“We also crowdsource data from daily commuters when we don’t have access to GPS,” says Dubey, adding that providing an accurate estimated time of arrival of buses is a very complex process.

Multiple variables such as bus speed, traffic conditions, time of day and historical data need to be analysed to get time for each route. “This information is now accurate to less than 30 seconds in Mumbai,” he claims.

Any plans to monetize? “We are eyeing a volume game,” says Dubey. The monetization model, he lets on, is based on commission. For every ticket booking that Zophop facilitates, it earns a small commission. “We are targeting 100 million daily commuters on Zophop,” he says.

This will allow the startup create a financially sustainable, profitable, and valuable business. Hope the startup finds ways to navigate the challenges involving limited exposure to local authorities, lack of regulations around organising data, and restrictive government policies.

“We can’t afford not to give our best to help 400 million Indians who use public transport, “he says, exhibiting his resolve not to miss the bus.